Japan and the creative industry

(Baonghean) - One of Japan's economic development policies is to stimulate the development of creative industries. These products not only benefit the promotion of culture but also promote strong economic growth in Japan.

Shinzo Abe dressed as Super Mario at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Photo: Guardian.

During the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics, the audience was not surprised by the appearance of a representative of the land of the rising sun as the host of the 2020 Olympics. However, something special happened when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suddenly wore the costume of the legendary video game character Super Mario, which is considered the symbol of Japan's biggest cultural export. This made audiences around the world feel excited and immediately the above images were shared a lot on social networking sites, attracting enthusiastic public attention.

In addition to the excitement generated by audiences around the world when they recognized the familiar image of the plumber Super Mario, the appearance of Shinzo Abe also brought plus points to the video game maker Nintendo, the creator of the Mario and Zelda franchises and co-owner of Pokémon GO. Indeed, Nintendo's shares rose by 3 percentage points on the Tokyo market when Super Mario was used to promote the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

In addition, a short film was shown simultaneously while the Japanese Prime Minister entered the stage, showing the images of two other cartoon characters, Hello Kitty and PacMan, the creative products of two companies, Sanrio and Bandai Namco. Prime Minister Abe himself once declared: "I use the power of characters to demonstrate the soft power of my country." Soft power here is understood as the sensitivity of foreigners to the culture and products of the native country or geopolitical influence.

It is no coincidence that Japan is famous for its cultural products related to animation, games or comics, but all are part of a cultural export strategy of this country in recent years - the "Cool Japan" policy. This policy aims to gain the world's sympathy for Japan and it can even solve the economic recession problems based on some products such as sushi or cartoon images.

Promote cultural promotion

The “Cool Japan” policy stems from the gradual weakening of Japan’s electronics and automobile industries in the face of greater competition from Asian rivals. In this context, the Japanese government has shifted to promoting soft power through cultural products such as animation, fashion and cuisine. This policy was initiated in 2013 and was approved by the Japanese upper house with a budget of 500 million USD for a 20-year plan.

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is in charge of the policy, which it hopes will facilitate entry into global markets for Japanese small and medium-sized companies. Furthermore, increasing the presence of Japanese cultural products will attract more international tourists to the country.

Japanese fashion show with the hope of strengthening the image of the capital Tokyo - the fashion center of the world. Photo: Japantimes.

The above strategy focuses on “creative industries” including many fields from cuisine, crafts, fashion, animation or music… These contents are believed to help increase the sales of Japanese goods.

Indeed, a similar example of the benefits of promoting creative products is South Korea. In 1998, the country established a $500 million cultural promotion fund. After nearly 20 years, Korean artists have dominated the pop charts in Asia, or television and film sales are the top in the region. Or Korean technological innovations such as Samsung and Hyundai have also become successful globally with a modern, youthful and cheerful image.

Economic efficiency

The global creative industries, including film, television, music, animation and video games, account for 7% of world exports with annual growth of 14%. The industry is said to generate many benefits for countries including innovation, increased tourism and even diplomatic power.

For Japan, although it only accounts for 0.5% of the world's content exports, it is undeniable that this is an area that they pay significant attention to. The low export figures for creative content or popular culture in Japan can be explained by two reasons. First, Japan's domestic market is already strong, so producers do not need to pay attention to external markets to achieve growth. Second, government policies have limited competition and protected the interests of large domestic enterprises. This has somewhat reduced the competitiveness of these enterprises when going abroad.

However, it must be admitted that the video game and comic book industries are two of the few industries that have developed without the protection of the Japanese government. In fact, these are the two most successful industries in the international arena in the field of creative industries. The most concrete evidence is the rapid development of the virtual reality game Pokémon GO on a global scale recently. However, whether other creative economic sectors can keep up with the gaming industry is still a big question mark. Thus, it can be seen that focusing on developing creative products to bring Japanese culture to the outside world is a well-founded policy, promising to bring a lot of success and benefits to the cherry blossom country in target markets.

Phan Vu